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2015 Dash Addition


2manyhobbies

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There are two ODB-M ports on the boat if I remember correctly (my boat is in "dealer prep" at the moment). There should be one under the dash and one on the engine wiring harness right behind the v drive. The issue that you're going in to, and what I've been banging my head against, is the the engine "talks" a different protocol than most cars do. The engine protocol is a CAN-BUS (in '15) and a MEFI bus in prior years, the '15 CAN-BUS protocol is e-control and the MEFI bus is J1939, but a different "dialect" of J1939 vs. diesel trucks. The person who explained the J1939 difference to me explained it "it's like english vs. spanish, the same message is there but it's in a different language". Apparently this is done to keep people from modifying the engines in boats...

I haven't spent much time yet to try to figure out the e-control CAN-BUS yet, but that may be a project for later this summer. I just can't wait to get through the first 10 hours so I can really start using my new boat!

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There are two ODB-M ports on the boat if I remember correctly (my boat is in "dealer prep" at the moment). There should be one under the dash and one on the engine wiring harness right behind the v drive. The issue that you're going in to, and what I've been banging my head against, is the the engine "talks" a different protocol than most cars do. The engine protocol is a CAN-BUS (in '15) and a MEFI bus in prior years, the '15 CAN-BUS protocol is e-control and the MEFI bus is J1939, but a different "dialect" of J1939 vs. diesel trucks. The person who explained the J1939 difference to me explained it "it's like english vs. spanish, the same message is there but it's in a different language". Apparently this is done to keep people from modifying the engines in boats...

I haven't spent much time yet to try to figure out the e-control CAN-BUS yet, but that may be a project for later this summer. I just can't wait to get through the first 10 hours so I can really start using my new boat!

I found the ODB-M under the dash, but haven't found the one by the v-drive yet. Will look for that this weekend.

I did find this Bluetooth Adapter that will at least get me the data - but to your point finding a program that can translate the data to viable set of codes is the catch. Torque Pro offers support for CAN-BUS/J1939 support, so I'm thinking I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the information, I post my results as I get a chance to experiment more with it. If nothing else, indmar has provided the necessary software out to allow vendors to hook up their computers to them, I'd be shocked if you had to buy an Indmar specific device (although I am probably more naive then many ) ... :)

Congrats on the new boat, I understand the itch to get the burn in hours done and start using the damn thing. I'm already at 25 hours and only had it out two weekends...

Edited by 2manyhobbies
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Also interested to see where this goes.

As a side, it is the first dash I have seen without the 'Sport knob' (or whatever it is called). Looks strange having that big cubby hole instead

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Ya wierd. Vinnies boat, with stereo delete even has it .

It's a separate option from the stereo. You can delete one and still add the other

Why not find a smaller tablet or phablet and mount where the cubby is? That would probably look a lot nicer IMO. But I'm curious to see the data you get on there

Edited by wakebrdr94
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Also interested to see where this goes.

As a side, it is the first dash I have seen without the 'Sport knob' (or whatever it is called). Looks strange having that big cubby hole instead

Love the cubby hole, gives me an awesome location to store my phone with a QI charging mat :)

I just noticed you did not order with the sport knob? any reason for this? First one I have ever seen without it.

I didn't custom order the boat from the factory, I took a boat from dealer inventory which had a 9/24 build date. The dealership does mostly custom stereo setups on the boats they have in stock, thus they order all their floor inventory with surfgate, phoneix trailers, and the rockford in boat speakers + amp, but they do not add any tower speaker/sub options from Malibu. As it was explained to me, the sport knob was bound as part of the tower/sub/amp package and they refuse to order those so the boat didn't get the sport knob.

I've not actually been in a boat that has the sport knob, I'm curious, is it really that useful? It just seems like an analog component on an otherwise fully digital dash? Perhaps if someone takes me for a ride on their bu with this option and shows me the ways of my mis-judgment, this will have to be a future mod :)

Ya wierd. Vinnies boat, with stereo delete even has it .

Perhaps something changed with Malibu's options/ordering since last year or my dealer is just full of BS lol

It's a separate option from the stereo. You can delete one and still add the other

Why not find a smaller tablet or phablet and mount where the cubby is? That would probably look a lot nicer IMO. But I'm curious to see the data you get on there

I actually had planned to do exactly what you suggested, mount over the cubby hole, in fact I have a mount that I tested it with. I did like the symmetry it gave with the three screens, but there was some downsides for me as well.

1 - I'm right handed and I prefered to control the screen with my right hand.

2 - I use it for video conf calls, and I wanted the camera at eye level else the person I was talking to would see my knee or other things not intended

3 - The cubby hole really works well for the QI charger setup I have

4 - With the tablet up on the right, it gave me the added bonus of a mount point for my 420 mic :)

Thanks all for the comments - appreciate it! I will keep you all updated on my findings with what data I can get -

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The sport knob is definitely not a necessity. I have a stereo delete, volume is useless for me. I have been using it most for the phone holder. It is also nice to fine tune wedge,it will do half increments from the touch screen. I don't use the speed up and down much at all, usually just use touch screen. Overall could live without it, but it is a nice second set of controls to have for the wedge and surf gate

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The sport knob is definitely not a necessity. I have a stereo delete, volume is useless for me. I have been using it most for the phone holder. It is also nice to fine tune wedge,it will do half increments from the touch screen. I don't use the speed up and down much at all, usually just use touch screen. Overall could live without it, but it is a nice second set of controls to have for the wedge and surf gate

So hopefully there will be a firmware flash that gives the half increments on the touchscreen and then the sport knob will really have no benefit for me :)

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I actually make a QI Charger Pad. Ill Hook the crew up with 50% off amazon coupons if your interested.

http://www.juicedsystems.com/docking-stations-and-hubs/QI-wireless-charging-pad <--- What I manufacture.

Anyone can PM me if they are interested.

@2manyhobbies - What widgets are you using on the tablet? Just Stereo widgets?

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@2manyhobbies - What widgets are you using on the tablet? Just Stereo widgets?

I'm using NOVA launcher with 9 customized Screens:

1 - Weather Radar (widget)

2 - Google Maps Navigation (widget- click to navigate home)

3 - Marine Navigation / Charts USA (combo app/widget)

4 - Communication Screen including Screen Shortcuts direct dialers (google hangouts), slack, skype, email widget, linkedIn widget, taptalk widget (TheMalibuCrew :) )

5 - Calendar Widget

6 - Torque Pro Dashboards (Nothing right now until I get this figured up based on notes above)

7 - Equalizer widget

8 - Pandora Widget / DoubleTwist Widget

9 - Terminal Emulator for Android, VNC, other utilities I use frequently

In addition, I have gesture hot key enabled for bringing up things like: GoPro App, App Drawer etc.

Finally, I have tasker setup to preform a multitude of actions including:

* System Boot when boat power is turned on

* Launch Stereo App when GPS location reaches our common area (launch ramp)

* Adjust Screen Brightness by time of day, as well as ambient light

Edited by 2manyhobbies
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Beam us up 2manny! Nice command control mods! Please just remember to keep eyes up while piloting to keep yourself and others safe. As bad as it sucks to have audio/ video issues, drop a call or be concerned about the weather during a friend or family wake session of epic proportions, please remember to not deal while rolling yourself, have a crew member assist or stop. :thankyou:

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Beam us up 2manny! Nice command control mods! Please just remember to keep eyes up while piloting to keep yourself and others safe. As bad as it sucks to have audio/ video issues, drop a call or be concerned about the weather during a friend or family wake session of epic proportions, please remember to not deal while rolling yourself, have a crew member assist or stop. :thankyou:

Oh, for sure. Couldn't agree more. Nice part is that I can easily hand the tablet to someone else to control the tunes, check weather etc - although they mostly just run in the background and let the viper turn volume up/down as we're riding. Most if not all of this is either for night navigation or for when I'm anchored out in some cove taking an a mid day video conference call for work before heading out to take my next set. :)

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which equalizer app is good for tablet form factor? I have Samsung Tab 3 w 7" screen going into the boat

http://vipersaudio.com/blog/?page_id=25

Viper4Android is amazing in my opinion, but be prepared as you'll need to do some leg work to get it running if your not rooted already - Here's some additional information to help installation: http://www.droidviews.com/guide-viper4android-make-work-lollipop-lrx21o/

From the standard play store installs, you'll likely want to look at what's going to work with your device. Ths samsung's have a bad history of eq app's not working correctly because of the custom modifications their rom's make to prevent overdriving of sound.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=equalizer%20for%20android&c=apps

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Before you too far down the path with Torque Pro and those Bluetooth dongles you need to know that OBD-M is not the same as OBDII. The plug is completely different and the protocol is too. As MIKEO says OBD-M uses the J1939 protocol. I have been searching for a solution for several years to get fuel management info. Your dealer most likely uses the Diacom software on his laptop for engine diagnostics. That provides a lot of the data you want right from the OBD-M port. But the software isn't cheap and you need a laptop and a cable. Livorsi and Maretron make J1939 (OBD-M) to NMEA 2000 convertors and there are a bunch of NMEA 2000 gauges out the to read the data you want. But not an elegant or inexpensive solution for our boats.

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Before you too far down the path with Torque Pro and those Bluetooth dongles you need to know that OBD-M is not the same as OBDII. The plug is completely different and the protocol is too. As MIKEO says OBD-M uses the J1939 protocol. I have been searching for a solution for several years to get fuel management info. Your dealer most likely uses the Diacom software on his laptop for engine diagnostics. That provides a lot of the data you want right from the OBD-M port. But the software isn't cheap and you need a laptop and a cable. Livorsi and Maretron make J1939 (OBD-M) to NMEA 2000 convertors and there are a bunch of NMEA 2000 gauges out the to read the data you want. But not an elegant or inexpensive solution for our boats.

21lsvskier - Thanks - Your comments are 100% in line with where my research this week this week and has left me woefully frustrated and underwhelmed by the information available on this. To your point, it appears there is a few different diag software packages that are available but they are all Microsoft based (pc and tablet), are not cheap, and there does not appear to be any Bluetooth interface available for ODB-M. I spoke to a rep at Diacom this week and they said they do not currently have software to run on android, they currently only support Microsoft PC's and Tablets. There apparently has been some request from their market for them to shift but they are not currently planning to re-develop their software. They also didn't know of any ODB-M bluetooth modules on the market.

I've put out a few additional phone calls to some other diagnostic software companies to see if there is anything on the market regardless of price that would support what I'm looking for, but I suspect I already know the answer which frustrates me.

I may wind up putting this on a back burner and see if I can get creative with another solution in the future...

Sorry for the disappointment, i know there are others looking for this as well, I've read a number of forums over the last few days all discussing the same thing. There appears to be a market for this, but it's so niche I can see why it's not been developed yet. On top of that, the support for every engine manufacture, combined with model variations and you wind up running into a never ending development effort. I can now see why the expense for the diag software...

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2manyhobbies - one more thing I forgot to mention. I picked up an Indmar brochure at my dealer last week and it made a fleeting reference to the 2015 engines being NMEA 2000 compliant / enabled. You may be able to work directly with NMEA 2000 gauges, etc. without having to use a black box. I'm stuck with MEFI-6 J1939. So close, yet so far.

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Anybody got the cliff notes on the last few tech tips.... Shoulda gone to grad school at MMI, ITT Tech, or better WYOTECH, it's closer..

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  • 3 months later...

Sooooo... Let me preface this topic with I am a self professed gadget geek. The dash setup on the 2015 LSV was probably the biggest draw for me when I was deciding on boats ( ok, I lie, the surf wake was the biggest but this was second). If you are annoyed at geek speak or gadgetry, please move on...

In my F150, I have a nexus 7 tablet mounted to the dash and it has become the nerve center of my truck, running everything from navigation, media controls, mobile work station (computer geek by trade), utilized it for video conference calls and I even have a custom dashboard setup using torque pro to monitor truck performance and boost gauges.

I made the decision to utilize the same setup and bought another nexus 7 ($139 referb w/ 32GB). This weekend, using some extra goPro mounts I had laying around and a suction cup mount, I added the tablet to the dash setup of our new LSV. I've run an 8mm audio direct into my 420 so I can avoid bluetooth degradation. I have power currently running off the 12v dc outlet just below the dash on the right.

I downloaded all the nav maps for Virginia and other waterways that I may frequent since I don't have the nav software for the bu. My favorite thing so far is having my goPro video fully displayed/controllable via my dash now, and I'm working on a mount for the tower similar to WakeEye. Currently researching some of the lens options to increase zoom with the goPro as well. I also added live radar widgets, as well as all my audio widgets and am fully up and running. Oh, it also doubles for an on-the-go work laptop for days when I'm on-call on the lake (bluetooth keyboard, VPN, ssh client or rdp client depending on the problem and I'm off).

Finally, I hate having wires attached to my phone all day which acts both as my mobile wifi spot (unlimited data thank you Verizon) and I don't want my batter to be dead so my Samsung Galaxy S5 is setup with a QI backplate and you'll notice the QI charging cradle in the cubby on the left with.

20150510_121641.jpg?m=1431400873

I'm looking to find out if the monsoon in my boat offers an ODB2 port or something similar that I can tap into, and if so what if any bluetooth dongles exist to read from the port. I'd love to be able to add customized dashboards to my tablet using torque Pro, if for no other reason then because I can? :)

Any issues with the suction mount and boat chop? Does it ever fall off?

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